


A Call From The Admiral

by graytheglowinggay



Series: The Android and the Engineer are in Love (DaForge Fics) [4]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Android Discrimination, Android Rights, BAMF Picard, Bigotry & Prejudice, Dehumanization, Discrimination, Engagement, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Outing, Picard POV, Picard is a good captain, Public Display of Affection, Starfleet Assholes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 01:14:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11863590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graytheglowinggay/pseuds/graytheglowinggay
Summary: Picard receives a call from the admiral regarding the recent Starfleet assessment of his ship, and he has to defend the right of two of his officers to love each other.





	A Call From The Admiral

**Author's Note:**

> This work is in the same timeline as my fic "I Am Coming Home To You (If It's The Last Thing That I Do)", and takes place about 3 weeks to a month later.

Picard was sitting in his ready room, a mug of Earl Grey in one hand and an old book in the other. One of the things that he enjoyed about being the Captain of a ship was that his ready room gave him a place to relax that was convenient in its proximity to the bridge. He placed his feet on his desk and leaned back in his chair. He let out a deep sigh.

The _Enterprise_ seemed to be occupying a lull between stressful missions. After the incident with Lore, they mostly had just been assessing contenders for the Federation or welcoming new officers to the ship. Picard always enjoyed receiving new crewmembers. There had also been an assessment from the admiralty, but the initial report that Picard had received indicated no problems. And so, Picard relaxed.

Unfortunately, as soon as Picard had started to get invested in his book, there was a soft beeping noise that indicated that someone was calling him. He sighed and lifted his feet off his desk. He closed his book, set down his mug, and answered the call. The face of Admiral Pierce appeared on screen.

“Greetings, Admiral,” Picard said.

“Picard, I have received the full detailed report from the Commander that I sent to assess your ship, and there has been some information in the report that I believe may require your attention.” he replied.

“And what is that?” Picard asked.

“I’ll just read it to you directly from the report. In this section, he is talking about the behavior and activities of the officers that he encountered during his stay. This took place on the second day. And I quote, ‘Commander Data arrived in engineering. I presumed that he had arrived there to receive information in some form from the engineers. However, instead of doing anything of that nature, he quickly walked over to Commander La Forge and engaged him in conversation that was clearly not concerning ship's business. When Commander Data arrived, he kissed Commander La Forge’s cheek, and the two of them exchanged a kiss on the lips before Commander Data left. This is not the sort of business that I would include in a report for the Admiral, but I found the behavior exhibited by the two officers, especially Commander Data, to be notable enough to require his attention.’ So, what do you think?”

Picard was worried, but not for the reasons that Pierce might think that he was. He was well aware of the relationship that Data and Geordi shared, in fact, they had gotten engaged not long ago. As long as the two of them didn’t make out in front of him, he had no qualms about their relationship.

No, Picard was not worried about that. He was worried about the fact that two of his officers, who shared a relationship of a politically sensitive nature, had been forcibly outed to their higher-ups. Considering how difficult it had been to secure Data’s status as a sentient being, Picard was able to easily extrapolate how they would most likely feel about the relationship in question.

Data and Geordi had been thinking about exactly how to make their relationship public in the eyes of Starfleet ever since they had started dating seriously, and had been seriously planning it since they got engaged. Now, they had been unwittingly outed just because someone was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What would Starfleet do? Force them to call off their engagement? Assign one of them to a different ship? Or would they simply give the two officers the cold shoulder and make it perfectly clear just how much they disapproved of the relationship, in the hopes that they could _guilt_ the two officers into breaking up? Picard was not about to let any of those options happen. He’d be damned before he let two of his officers be told that they couldn’t love each other.

“Why was this information included in the report?” he asked.

Pierce laughed nervously. “The behavior expressed in this report is unusual, to say the least.”

“I’m afraid I do not see anything unusual about the way Commander Data or Commander La Forge behaved in this report. Their actions were perfectly within Starfleet regulations.” Picard replied.

Pierce was silent for a moment, clearly grasping at straws. “Well, don’t you find it the tiniest bit odd that the android is, you know, chatting on duty? And kissing a fellow officer? If he was under my command, I’d have his circuitry checked, just in case.”

Picard took a deep breath. _So, it’s come to this._

“The interactions between Data and La Forge were nothing out of the ordinary for a romantic couple.” he frankly stated.

Pierce widened his eyes slightly. He leaned back in his chair and sighed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d check to make sure that gravity still worked.”

Picard raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“So… you said ‘a romantic couple’. What do you mean by that?” he asked.

“Commander La Forge and Commander Data are in a romantic relationship. Currently, they are engaged to be married.” Picard explained.

“An android for a boyfriend. Now I’ve seen everything,” he muttered. “Why are the two of them together? Is La Forge _that_ bad at asking real people out?”

“ _Real people?_ ” Picard exclaimed. If Pierce made one more misstep, Picard would be less inclined to forgive ignorance.

Pierce put his hands up in a defensive gesture. “Why would anyone date an emotionless being, unless they had no other options? I’m just stating my view of the situation.”

“A romantic relationship is based on mutual connection and desire. This isn’t about La Forge’s ability to date anyone else. La Forge desired to be with Data. Data desired to be with La Forge. They fell in love with each other. It’s just that simple,” Picard explained. “Also, it doesn’t matter if you can’t ‘get it’. Love doesn’t exist to be comprehensible to an outsider.”

“Well, you see, Picard, I don’t think that whatever exists between those two could be called love. Lust, perhaps, curiosity even, but not love. Love needs emotion, and Data simply doesn’t have that.”

“I thought that humans were beyond this kind of judgment.”

“I’m sorry, Picard, but that’s just the truth.”

“No, Admiral, no it isn’t. I can’t even _pretend_ to understand how Data’s mind works. He says that he has no emotions, and that’s just what we have to accept. Now, what those two have is not _lust_ , it is not _curiosity_ , it is _love_. Lust or curiosity couldn’t maintain a relationship like what they have. Lust or curiosity wouldn’t drive one to put himself in harm’s way to protect the other. Even the small slice of their life that your officer saw shows nothing of those two feelings. What he saw was an officer of Starfleet going to briefly visit his fiancé during a lull in activity while on duty; a simple action in a day in two lives intertwined. However, what your actions show is a feeling that has been demonstrated throughout human history, and one that I hoped was finally dead: the desire to police other people’s love and turn their relationships into a subject of debate.”

“So, maybe Data can feel love. That doesn’t change the fact that a human is intending to marry an android.” Pierce replied.

“The Federation’s definition of a marriage is, ‘a legally-recognized union of a romantic nature between two or more consenting adults.’ Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“And it has been proven, by trial of law, I might add, that Data is a sentient being with all the rights that would be prescribed to a living being of that nature.”

“Yes.”

“This means that Data has the ability to— and the right to— be part of a union of marriage if he so desires.”

“I suppose so.”

“And clearly, he does. So, there is no reason why their marriage should be denied.” Picard concluded.

Clearly, Pierce was at a loss for what to say.

“Thank you for your time, Captain. I now understand the situation at hand. I wish your two officers the best in their endeavor. Pierce out.”

Picard might not have been able to change the Admiral’s opinion on the matter, but he had successfully defended the rights of those under his command, and that was enough for Picard to chalk the conversation up as a victory.

**Author's Note:**

> I may turn this work into a two-shot, with Picard explaining what happened to Data and Geordi, but we'll just have to wait and see. Apart from that, thanks for reading! I always get really pissed off whenever people dehumanize Data. Did the trial in "The Measure of a Man" mean nothing?"


End file.
